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Breaking News: Wrath of the Lich King confirmed
The WoW Insider staff were standing in the lobby of the Anaheim Convention Center, and saw Paul Della Bitta, Senior CM walking up to the Press Badge pickup booths: On his very back is the confirmation we've all been waiting for, and two hours before the official announcement! Yes indeed, in the very near future we will be heading to Northrend, playing what they term in the schedule of events as "World of Warcraft Expansion II," also known as Wrath of the Lich King. You heard it here first-- our hunches were right. Now keep an eye out for our continuing coverage. We are hoping to have up to the minute blogging of the Opening Ceremony, but it looks as if the juicy stuff is coming even before 11 am. The revised schedule of events I was handed has a concept sketch Tuskarr hunter in the lower right hand corner. Does this mean new playable races? We will let you know as soon as we have more info to bring you!
Picture proof: 'Wrath of the Lich King' is new WoW expansion
[Update: WoW Insider's crack team of bloggers has further picture proof, a snap of a Wrath of the Lich King shirt on the back of a Blizzard employee ... that certainly sounds definitive to us (take that IGN!). We'll be liveblogging the Opening Ceremony, scheduled to start at 2pm EDT, so check back.] World of Raids has snagged a convincing slice of evidence that details the assumed World of Warcraft expansion: Wrath of the Lich King. The pamphlet, allegedly on display at BlizzCon, includes this tell-all features list: The dark, necromatic Death Knight, the first new character class added to World of Warcraft since its launch Northrend, the harsh, icy continent where the Lich King holds rule, complete with new zones, quests, items and monsters New level cap of 80 providing access to mighty new powers and talents New battlegrounds featuring siege engine warfare and destructible buildings Expanding character customization options including new hairstyles & dances, the ability to change the hairstyles of existing characters, and new skin color variants Watch this space for further developments at BlizzCon. [Via Evil Avatar]
"Leaked" FAQ for WotLK
Personally, I'm pretty convinced that the forthcoming expansion is going to be called Wrath of the Lich King, mostly because the title was listed by the USK, the German equivalent of the ESRB (see update 2 here). Now we have what purports to be a leaked FAQ for the expansion, allegedly briefly visible on wow-europe.com last night. I don't know whether this is real or not, but it's certainly interesting. Here's my favorite part (my emphasis): The death knight is the first hero class in World of Warcraft; once certain criteria are met, players will unlock the ability to create a new death knight character, which will begin play at a high experience level. That answers the question about people having to grind the new class up through the levels. I only wish it was available for all classes. According to this FAQ, the DK will be available to both Alliance and Horde, and will "combine damage-dealing and tanking" as far as party role goes. A few other points of special interest (summarized): Level cap raised to 80 New profession: "Inscription allows the player to permanently enhance their spells and abilities and to create mysterious items of power to use, trade, and sell." New and existing characters will be able to customize dances (??) and hairstyle Northrend will be about as big as Outland and will take about as long to complete. Players will fight Arthas himself The full FAQ is after the cut, or you can read it at the source here (scroll down for English). Please do remember to take this with a grain of salt.
Next expansion "Wrath of the Lich King?"
It's four days to Blizzcon, and Boubouille, long-time source of quality information, thinks he knows what the next expansion is going to be called: Wrath of the Lich King. Obviously this supports previous information pointing to a Northrend-themed expansion, as Northrend is home to Arthas, the Lich King himself. The original post on the MMO-Champion forums claiming this to be the expansion name also asserts that there will be a new class: Death Knight! This seems to be less substantiated, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be true. Rumors aside, we'll almost certainly know for sure in just a few days. Are you excited? I am.As far as the Death Knight rumor goes, the WoWWiki page lends a bit of support: apparently, Death Knight (as well as Necromancer) were originally planned to be classes in WoW, but didn't make it to release. Furthermore, there exists a green called Triumphant Shield of Shadow Wrath, which is confusing as no shield-using classes (Warrior, Paladin, Shaman) can use Shadow magic. This could just be an oversight in the random-enchant-generating code, but it could also be a hint at a Shadow-wielding, shield-using class...Update: Over at MMO-Champion, they suggest that this is accurate because the link www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/ leads to a "forbidden" error, whereas accessing any other non-existent page on the site will give you a "not found" error. Continue to enjoy your rumormongering, everyone!Update 2: Again from MMO-Champion, the title World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King was found on the web site of Usk.de, which is apparently the German equivalent of our ESRB (i.e. the agency that assigns content ratings to games). It seems to have a "12" rating; although I don't speak German, I assume that means "suitable for 12 and up."Update 3: It's official now -- check out all of the news on Wrath of the Lich King.
WoW Insider's Blizzcon Bingo
Because if you're going to a convention about a game, you might as well turn it into a game, right? Just for fun, we've put together a BlizzCon Bingo card-- save the image, print it out, bring it to BlizzCon, and then make a mark whenever you see something at the convention on the card. There's all kinds of things on there, everything from a Northrend expansion, to someone saying "kek" in RL, to Blizzard CMs and developers.All you have to do is observe five occurences in a row throughout the weekend, and you win! What, you ask, do you win? The satisfaction of a full and fulfilling BlizzCon weekend. I don't know about you, but if I leave Anaheim having seen a new Diablo, new midlevel content, or just a really quality Murloc costume, my weekend will be made.And while lots of these are easy to recreate yourself (anyone can complain about their class), remember: no cheating! You must observe what happens, not cause it in any way. Good luck!
WoW Moviewatch: The story so far
It seems more clear than ever that we're headed to Northrend in the next expansion. And so, via our good friends at Joystiq, here's a little refresher from the last time we were there.That's our buddy Arthas, wielding Frostmourne and meeting up with (and becoming, most likely) the Lich King during the very last cutscene of Warcraft III. That building he's hanging out in is Icecrown Citadel, which will very likely be a raid dungeon at some point in WoW. The voice saying, "Forget this business" is Muradin Bronzebeard, and the voice questioning Arthas' sanity is Uther the Lightbringer himself, whom Arthas murdered (and whose tomb is found right now in the Western Plaguelands). And of course as far as we know, Arthas is still sitting on that throne, ready to appear.. in a brand new cinematic on Friday at BlizzCon?Excited yet?Update: My fault, I thought both voices were Uther. Should have realized no Human would ever have an accent like that.
Rumor: Northrend could be next World of Warcraft expansion
Before we proceed, please take this with a brick of salt -- ready? Let's go. WoW Insider received information from an anonymous tipster that the Video Games Live orchestra will be performing three pieces called "Northrend 1, 2,and 3" at next week's BlizzCon. WoW Insider dug deeper and found the track names do not appear on Warcraft II, Warcraft III, World of Warcraft or the Burning Crusade soundtracks. This could mean the continent of Northrend will finally come into play in the next expansion and gamers will be able to take on Warcraft III's anti-hero/villain (depending on your perspective), the fallen Prince Arthas, who now sits on The Frozen Throne.World of Warcraft has left two major sections of Warcraft III's story open, one of which, if the information is solid, will hopefully be tied up in a battle with Arthas. The other being the glowing pink sparkly bubble protecting the city of Dalaran, which has taunted WoW players for over two years. Then again, Blizzard can take its sweet time, it's not like they're hurting for players, and introduce The Emerald Dream or take on the expansive ocean in the next expansion. BlizzCon starts next weekend and Joystiq, along with WoW Insider, will be there covering it to let you know about the latest from Blizzard's franchises.
Leaked BlizzCon VGL sheet music points North
This might be the closest thing we've heard to news about the next expansion yet-- an anonymous tipster sent us a note that the Video Games Live orchestra, scheduled to play in the final concert at BlizzCon, has received their sheet music for the show, and hidden within the pages is three pieces called "Northrend 1, 2, and 3."That track doesn't appear in the Warcraft III, World of Warcraft, or Burning Crusade soundtrack lists at all. Warcraft 2's soundtrack was released as mp3 tracks by Blizzard, and Northrend doesn't appear there, either. So unless this is an old midi track from Warcraft or Warcraft II, odds are that we're looking at a brand new piece of music, and that players will be headed to Northrend very soon.Now, of course when you think Northrend, you have to think Arthas. Blizzard has said in the past that a full raid of level 80 players would be needed to beat him (at least), so if we are going to Northrend in the next expansion, we may be looking at yet another 10 level cap raise. Then again, just because Northrend opens doesn't mean the cap is going up yet. And of course, even if we do go to Northrend, there's no guarantee that it will be the only new land in the expansion, so you Emerald Dream dreamers can still hold out hope.But I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that at some point during BlizzCon (my guess is still during the opening ceremony), we're going to hear more about the big continent to the north.
Optimistic speculation about expansion number two
The lack of information about the next expansion continues, and so does the fabrication by fans hungry for info about new content. This time Tobold lays out what he'd like to see in the next expansion, which he is calling, as a parody of the Burning Crusade, the Freezing Jihad.He's got some of the usual suspects in there, including the long awaited hero classes. But his biggest suggestion is probably that the expansion focuses on adding oomph (technical term) to the midlevels of the game. In his imagination, there is no new level cap, but rather a complete reworking of everything between 1 and 70, including an all new neutral faction with four new races, and a new continent of quests for players from beginning to end. I doubt we'll get anything near that comprehensive, but it's true that players want more midlevel content. While this is probably beyond their wildest dreams, hopefully Blizzard will at least hear their pleas.In other places, Tobold is just plain wrong-- we're going to see guild housing before we ever see player housing, and Blizzard has consistently said they want their armor to look like what they say, not what players say. But he's dead right on the new professions-- woodworking and the ability of players to make arrows and bows would both fit perfectly with the lore, and fill a nice hole in crafting that's been there for a long time.
WoW Moviewatch: Northrend video (not really)
Know why I love you guys? Because when you go too long without hearing new information about the next patch and expansion, you just go out there and make it up.This video says it's by Fanatik, who you may remember has leaked some info about upcoming content before. This purports to be a video of the next expansion, situated in Northrend-- except that it's completely and totally fake. Some parts are better than others-- the last cinematic is ripped straight out of WC3, but the main screen looks OK, at least until you realize that it too is chopped together from the previous Warcraft game. Boubouille has a list over at MMO Champion of where everything in the video comes from, and it's all completely fake-- Fanatik didn't even create it.Still, it would be nice to hear some official word from Blizzard about what's coming next, wouldn't it? Until then (probably around Blizzcon, if my instincts are correct), I guess we'll have to make do with this.
Everything we know about 2.2, 2.3, and the next expansion
EU Forum MVP Schwick has posted a very nice and very thorough listing of everything we know about patch 2.2, 2.3, and the next expansion. As far as I know, there's nothing really new here, but it's a terrifically indepth listing of every rumor, hint, and suspicion that we've heard so far.Some of the exciting ideas still coming are new emotes, a tanking Pally revamp, a new stealth animation for Rogues, and totem timers for Shamans (currently, I use Totemus, and that suits me just fine). Also on the to-do list includes VOIP, guild banks and housing, and speculations for the next expansion include Northrend (I've got my money on this one, because the Scourge have it coming), "Beyond Outland," and the Emerald Dream.I'm sure we'll learn more eventually (expect big things at Blizzcon, I foresee), but until then, this roundup is as comprehensive as it gets. Thanks to Schwick for compiling this all together for us.
WoW Future-Vision: Express train to the level cap
The year is 2012. WoW fans are excitedly awaiting the game's 5th expansion, Revenge of the Gnomes, which brings two new races to the game (Sporeggar and Goblins, at last!), as well as a new class (the Tinker), and a slew of other features. As everyone knows, this is the expansion where the gnomes finally take back Gnomeregan from the troggs, pushing them back all the way into the "Undergloom," a vast and ancient network of caverns beneath Azeroth. Of course, the gnomes also accidentally stumble upon the long-buried prison of the Old Gods and unleash unbridled havoc on the World of Warcraft, but that's where the fun is, right?I could go on and on about the new features included in Revenge of the Gnomes, but I'm sure you've heard about most of them already (like the subterranean hovercraft group-mounts and blue-pill, red-pill potions for alchemy). Suffice it to say that the feature everyone is most excited about is that the level cap is once again being raised another 10 levels, to a grand total of 110. Like everyone else, you're probably wondering how in the world (of Warcraft) are you going to level your new Goblin Tinker character all the way through those tedious levels of 1 to 100? Everyone wants to try out the new content, but no one wants to slave away through Stranglethorn Vale for the 48th time. To complicate things further, Blizzard still doesn't want to add any more 1-60 quests in the lower-level zones (not to mention any of the Outland, Northrend, Emerald Dream, or Great Sea Expansion zones)! Fortunately, though, Blizzard's got what you need! Are you prepared for the "/level" command?
The Northrend map forgery
Wowguru has recently posted a highly realistic-looking map of Northrend. When I last wrote about the expansion of the map of Azeroth and Northrend's likelihood as an expansion, Kor was kind enough to scan his copy of the Lands of Mystery RPG book for us. If you compare the two images, you'll see a lot of discrepancies between the two. Cities seem misaligned or completely missing. Also, this map makes it appear as if there will be two large cities, centers for two possible races, which isn't likely either. This map could be a fake, or it could be a mock up for developer use while they finalize the layout of the continent. The fonts do look a bit off from the maps currently in the game, and there appear to be reused images in the corners, which again points to something shady. I'm just as excited as anyone for information on the upcoming expansion. I just don't think this is it. [via Wowguru]
Adding to the Azeroth map
Currently our map of Azeroth has two continents, but anyone who's played the original RTS games knows more is out there. Blizzplanet has some interesting information that leads me to hazard a guess that we may be seeing more added to the cartography of Azeroth in the future. They start with the information, lore and such that were added to the World of Warcraft RPG: Lands of Mystery tabletop rulebook. Should you own a copy (I, alas, do not) you will find it contains new info on Northrend and the South Seas. The maps that we saw on the WoW Collector's Edition behind the scenes DVD of Azeroth show that they have been planning such an expansion since 2004. On the map, it shows Northrend at the top of the world, with the Maelstrom and Nazajatar in the middle and the Isle of Kezen/Undermine at the bottom.
Rob Pardo talks content with Businessweek
Recently Blizzard's Rob Pardo sat down with Businessweek. He mostly talked about the future of the game, the success of The Burning Crusade, and the creative process. Since reading his interview, I have spent a lot of time mulling over what he said. The first thing that stuck out in my mind was his likening the MMO to a television series. "We're developing episodes just like Lost or Seinfeld," he commented, "We're always trying to come up with something that's true to the theory; that's true to the content that people love; but that is new." I never had the chance to look at the development cycle like this. In some ways it explains the company's drive to constantly bring us new content rather than connecting old dots (Uldum anyone?). The designers are looking forward, and as they mentioned at Blizzcon in 2005, more portals will be opening, new worlds for us to explore. And we as gamers are ravenous for this new content. Our expectations are high, and the company is there to try and satiate our ever growing appetite. What this also means is that there is a story arch with which they are working. I know Lost is working on a seven-year story arch. Does this mean that we can expect a grander plotline connecting the expansions together? I for one am eager to find out. I haven't really thought about the game in these terms. My previous experience with MMOs (*cough* Anarchy Online *cough*) has taught me that games are fairly linear. Yes, there might be a new world connected to the old one, but the story pretty much stays the same. Since playing World of Warcraft I have had to reinvent my view of the MMO, and now I, too am one of those ravenous players dying for new stories and new characters to love or hate. This interview has made me wonder where we are going with the next expansions. So I'd love to hear what you think. Beyond the proposed Northrend and Emerald Dream expansions, where would you like to go as the World of Warcraft universe expands into new worlds?
Northrend hints in PTR client?
This is pretty slim evidence, but still interesting. As you might expect, people have gotten to datamining the PTR client by now, and along with all sorts of interesting graphics, they've found some interesting categorization. To be specific, there are now assets (which I think just means bits of data) categorized under "Expansion02" and then under "howlingfjord." Why is this interesting? Well, Howling Fjord is an area in South-Eastern Northrend!It has long been speculated that Northrend is going to be the area of a future expansion, what with Arthas and all that lovely lore stuff. It's also very conspicuously missing from our Azeroth maps. According to WoWWiki, Valgarde, an outpost in the Howling Fjord, "has since become the center of Alliance activity on Northrend." So that makes Howling Fjord a pretty likely Alliance starting zone for Northrend. On the other hand, Blizz have said that we're a few expansions away from being able to defeat Arthas (but that doesn't necessarily mean they won't open Northrend and just keep Arthas from us).What do you think? Is "howlingfjord" being categorized under "Expansion02" anything we can draw conclusions from?[thanks, Robert]
The speculation begins... again
Too soon? Too bad.The paint hasn't even dried (or, in some cases, been applied) on the Burning Crusade, but players have already begun speculating about the next expansion pack-- the one Blizzard said would come a year from now. It's not all completely unfounded-- a CM has hinted (ok, he was joking) at Uldum finally showing up, but this is the videogame industry, so if there's any chance at all that something might come out in the next century (Duke Nukem, anyone), players are talking about how cool it will be.Besides the Uldum guess, a lot of players say Northrend and Arthas, but it's true that Blizzard has said a few times that that's another few expansions away. Personally, I'm throwing my hat in the "back to the seas" camp-- I think we'll see what's in the middle of the map, and maybe get some swimming mounts. Or maybe some new races? Maybe Murlocs or Naga will make a show as player characters eventually. Paladinsucks is in on the speculation, but as usually, they're only concerned about how their shiny Paladin selves will look.Ok, ok, so we haven't even opened the plastic wrap on the Burning Crusade yet. Feel free to go back to running Hellfire Citadel and getting to 70. But know that as soon as a year from now (snicker), we could all be doing it all over again.
